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Run an External Pentest

NodeZero External Pentest is an easy way to gain an additional perspective on your environment. Due to the nature of an external pentest, you must first authorize the discovered assets.

Before getting started, navigate to the NodeZero portal and login with your credentials.


How to Run an External Pentest

To run an external pentest, first create an Asset Group and run Asset Discovery to enumerate external facing assets. When the Asset Discovery completes, you can authorize assets for pentesting and start an external pentest. Follow the documentation step by step or jump to one of the following sections:


Create an Asset Group

1. Navigate to External Assets

To run an external pentest, first create an Asset Group. The Asset Group is used to scope the external pentest.

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2. Click Create Asset Group

On External Assets, click + Asset Group to open the asset group configuration.

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3. Configure the Asset Group

3.1 Set a Scope for the Asset Group

Name the Asset Group and provide company assets as domains, IP addresses, or a combination of domains and IP Addresses. A maximum of 700 domains can be added to the configuration. IP addresses need to be Public IPs only with a maximum input of 3000 entries and formatted using IP/CIDR notation. Please specify a network segment of /20 or smaller (e.g., /22, /23, /24). Both domains and IP addresses should be comma separated. Click Next.

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3.2 Optionally, add your Git and AWS Accounts

Listing Git and AWS accounts allows NodeZero to confirm ownership of these accounts and perform a more thorough enumeration of assets.

  • To add a Git Account, select +Add Account, select a Git provider, and add the account name.
  • To add an AWS Account, type the 12-digit AWS Account ID in the box listed below.

Once satisfied with the accounts, Click Next.

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3.3 Attack Configuration Options
  • Add company name(s) that NodeZero will use for Open Source INTelligence (OSINT) gathering tools and techniques to harvest company information.
  • Enable brute force on subdomains to authorize NodeZero to search for well-known subdomains that may not surface through OSINT discovery.

Once satisfied with the configuration options, click Create Asset Group.

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Run Asset Discovery

NodeZero’s External Asset Discovery is a passive enumeration capability that leverages DNS, passive website crawling, certificate scraping, and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) gathering capabilities and services to find all the assets linked to your organization. No exploitation is performed during this operation.

If you just created your Asset Group, review the Asset Group configuration and click Run Asset Discovery. Alternatively, if changes are needed, click Go to Asset Group and click Edit Configuration in the top right.

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If you are viewing your Asset Group, click Run Asset Discovery in the top right.

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Asset Discovery is in progress

NodeZero sends an email once Asset Discovery finishes enumeration. Return to this documentation when your Asset Discovery is complete to learn how to authorize discovered assets for external pentesting.


Authorize Assets

1. Navigate to External Assets

Now that Asset Discovery has been completed, navigate to External Assets to review and authorize assets for external pentesting.

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2. Click on the Asset Group

Click the external asset group with the “Done” Asset Discovery Status.

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3. Review Discovered Domains

During Asset Discovery, NodeZero may find related company domains which can be added to the asset group’s configuration. To add these discovered domains to the asset group’s configuration, click Add to Config on the domain in the list. Otherwise, go to the next step.

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Rerun Asset Discovery on a routine basis to have the most up-to-date information on the status of your assets.

4. Review Subdomains to Authorize Assets

Expand a Domain to review discovered subdomains identified during Asset Discovery. To authorize assets for a pentest, select the asset, click Take Action, and then Authorize for Pentest.

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Only authorize the assets you are legally permitted to pentest. You are responsible for accurately defining the scope of the Services for both internal and external testing. See Terms and Conditions for more information.

4.1 Assets with Warnings

Assets may have warnings indicating that they are hosted on third-party aliases. Before authorizing, verify you are legally allowed to pentest these assets. Possible reasons for the asset warnings:

  • Asset links to services such as Rackspace and Digital Ocean don’t provide their pentesting guidance and NodeZero cannot confirm the allowance of pentesting their services
  • Asset links to some unknown third-party service and you need to determine if external pentesting is allowed or not based on the terms and conditions of the service
4.2 When authorizing an asset with a warning…

When authorizing an asset with a warning, this pop-up requires verification that you are aware that you are authorizing assets that may fall outside of your domain. From this warning, you may remove assets from this list by clicking the trashcan. Click Authorize if you are legally allowed to pentest all the assets listed.

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4.3 Asset IP Resolution

During an external pentest, NodeZero uses the asset’s IP Resolution to determine if an asset stays in scope for the pentest. IP Resolution may be marked as Variable or Fixed. By default, assets are set to Fixed IP Resolution.

Fixed IP Resolution indicates the IP address resolved from the domain name is not expected to change. Assets labeled Fixed will be removed from scope if the asset resolves to a different IP address during the External Pentest than it did during the Asset Discovery.

Variable IP Resolution indicates the IP address resolved from the domain name may be expected to change over time. Assets labeled Variable will remain in scope even if the IP address changes between the Asset Discovery and the External Pentest. An example of a Variable asset IP would be AWS assets for which the resolved IP address is controlled by AWS and may change between pentests.

5. Configured IPs

On the Configured IPs tab, view reachable IP addresses in the Asset Group configuration. To authorize an IP address for a pentest, select the IP address, click Take Action, and then Authorize for Pentest.

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6. Accounts Tab

On the Accounts tab, view Git and AWS accounts added to the Asset Group configuration. To add or remove Git or AWS accounts, edit the asset group configuration by clicking the menu button in the top right of the asset group.

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Start an External Pentest

1. Navigate to Pentests to Run an External Pentest

Once an Asset Group contains the assets authorized for pentesting, you may navigate to the Pentests page to start an external pentest.

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2. Click + Run a Pentest

Click + Run a Pentest to open the Pentest Configuration and select External Pentest Screenshot Screenshot

3. Configure the External Pentest

3.1 Set a Scope for the External Pentest

Name the External Pentest, select a pentest template, and select an Asset Group with authorized assets.

If no changes are needed to the template configuration, click Run Pentest to start the pentest now.

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3.2 Advanced Configuration Options

Select the types of services and vulnerabilities NodeZero will attempt to enumerate and exploit. Click Next.

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3.3 Additional Pentest Options

Add additional pentest options to further customize your pentest:

  • Add a minimum or a maximum amount of time for a pentest
  • Obtain the External Pentest's IP

Then, click Review.

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If you select to Get NodeZero's IP, NodeZero will acquire an IP, Pause the Pentest, and notify you that an IP has been acquired. After you have allow-listed the NodeZero IP where necessary, Resume the pentest from the Real-Time View.

3.4 Review the External Pentest Configuration

Once satisfied with your pentest selections, check the box to indicate you represent and have the legal authority to conduct Horizon3.ai's External Penetration Testing on the list of authorized assets. Then click Run Pentest.

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You've started an External Pentest

NodeZero sends an email once the External Pentest completes.

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Tip

NodeZero can also run pentests from an authenticated perspective. Go to the Real-Time View and Inject Credentials to see the impact an attacker would have by leveraging compromised credentials!